Employees of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation were informed that layoff notices would be going out this week to 1,300 workers statewide, including about 1,200 in the Division of Juvenile Justice and 100 in adult programs, spokesman Seth Unger said.

A memo from department Chief of Staff Brett Morgan noted that juvenile and adult facilities in San Joaquin County would be impacted, as would juvenile facilities in Amador County. However, no specific details were available Tuesday on how many employees in the counties might be affected.

Layoff notices were also going out to prison employees in Fresno, Kings, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Bernardino and Ventura counties, according to the memo.

San Joaquin County is home to two operational youth correctional facilities - N.A. Chaderjian and O.H. Close - as well as the Youth Authority Training Center on Arch Road in southeast Stockton. The Preston Youth Correctional Facility is in Ione in Amador County. An adult prison, Deuel Vocational Institution, is on Kasson Road east of Tracy in rural southwestern San Joaquin County.

Morgan said the memo was intended to keep employees informed of the layoff process from the beginning, hence details still have to be worked out.

"On July 28, 2009, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a $24 billion budget solution, which included $16.1 billion in spending reductions ($1.2 billion for CDCR). As a result of this reduction, CDCR must take appropriate and critical steps to implement reductions within the department," Morgan wrote.

He noted that the layoff notices going out this week would be sent to the "least senior employees" within certain impacted job classifications. But those employees would be given the opportunity to fill vacant positions in their counties or volunteer to transfer to vacant positions in other county.

Prison reform advocate Sara Norman, a staff attorney with the Prison Law Office, noted that in the past four years, the number of wards in the state-run juvenile system has been reduced from about 9,000 to about 1,700.

"This is consistent with the reform requirements that the court system has put on (the Division of Juvenile Justice). These adjustments have been passed through the experts who have approved them as appropriate. We have no concerns at this point about staffing changes endangering reforms," Norman said.

Representatives of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association said they were still waiting for specifics on the department's layoff plans.

"They are still in the planning process. We have no other information," said Steve Herrera, who represents workers at Stockton's youth correctional facilities.